Sunday, June 10, 2012

It's All Down Hill From Here and Snow!!

Bozeman, MT.

40 Deg. overcast, light rain

Forecast = Mostly cloudy with a chance of rain. High of 55F. Breezy. Winds from the WSW at 20 to 25 mph with gusts to 30 mph. Chance of rain 50%.

It's all down hill from here!!!!

Well, maybe not all the way, but I did go over the Continental Divide at 6375' yesterday and logic says that being that the central states are pretty much less than 1000', it should be all down hill. : )

But,  ,  ,  ,  ,   lets back up and I'll fill you in on what's been going on the last few days.

We left St. Regis about 9:45 Friday morning and continued East on I-90, arriving at the 2 Bar Lazy H Campground near Butte, MT. about 12:50. The road was fairly good with some fairly steep grades in places, but nothing that slowed me down too much.

It took us 3 hours and 5 minutes to travel the 183 miles.

As soon as we pulled into the CG I didn't much like what I saw. To me, it didn't look like any of the sites were level and the CG didn't look very well maintained. Then, when Jim went to the office and found the door locked with a sign saying that he should pay before finding a site, I definately had my doubts about this park.

Well, Jim didn't pay but instead walked out into the park to see if he could find a site suitable for me. He finally talked to a man way back on the back row that told him that the back row was the only row with 50 amp sites and full hook-ups. He also told Jim that there's hardly ever anyone in the office, and sometimes it was days before anyone came around to collect the checks or cash that people had paid.

Jim found a site on the back row that was suitable, so he came and got me and CLT and took us to the site.

He had to unhook CLT to get me into the site, and after I was on the site, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get leveled. I did get pretty close to level and Jim and Linda decided that it would be OK for just one night.

Jim went back to the office and paid the $30 for the site, but I think that if there would have been another CG in the area, we would have left. This park is definately not worth $30. The sites are not level, it's not well maintained, and the only way to find out if there's a site that's suitable, is to go look at the sites.

The forecast for yesterday was again for nasty weather with high winds and rain. If the 2 Bar Lazy H CG would have been decent, we probably would have just stayed there for an additional day or two, but since it wasn't, Jim called the the Beay Canyon Campground here in Bozeman to make sure they had a site for me. They did, and when Jim asked if it was OK of we’d get there between 10:30 and 11:00, Siara, (the very nice young lady in the office), told him that the normal check-in time was 1:00 pm but it would be OK of we came early since there was no one in the site that she was saving for me. : )

Now, I probably should explain why Jim wanted to get going early.

As I said, the forecast was for strong winds and rain, but that system had not moved into the area yet, so if we left early, we just might make it over Homestake Pass, (The Continental Divide at 6375’), before the weather changed. He also wanted to get to the Bear Canyon CG and get me into my site before the weather moved in if possible.

So,  ,  ,  ,  , by , we were pulling out of the CG near Butte and heading East on I-90 again. Just a little way past Butte, the road started to climb and soon we were up to the top of the pass.

Of course when you go up, you must go down, and that’s when it got interesting. There’s signs at the top of the pass warning about 5 miles of 6% grade with curves and to check your brakes, and others telling you that the speed limit for any vehicle over 12,000 lbs is 25 MPH!!!!  

Well, we made it slowly down the mountain without any problems and by we were pulling up in front of the office here at the Bear Canyon CG in Bozeman.

It was only 91 miles over here and it took us only 1 hour and 50 minutes, but I was sure glad that we got here when we did because just after Jim had me positioned in my site and the utilities hooked up, the wind picked up, it started to rain, and by mid afternoon, the rain turned to snow!!!!  

I sure would have hated to be coming over that pass in that weather!! : O

This is a very nice CG. Jim didn’t get a chance to take any photos, but if he does I’ll be sure to post some. There’s vegetation between the sites, many are pull-through and the CG appears to be well maintained. About the only problem is that the turns are pretty tight for a 45’ MH pulling a toad, but I’ve been able to manage so far.

We’ll be staying here for 2 nights. The forecasters are saying that the weather should improve by tomorrow, but we’ll see. If it’s still nasty, we’ll stay for another night. ; )

Oh, and the snow?   Well it snowed enough that the all the vehicles in the park were white, and the grass was almost covered. Of course after it quit snowing, it all melted right away.

Did you know that the lowest recorded temperature in Bozeman, −43 °F (−42 °C), occurred on February 8, 1936?





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